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Hardy day to day after leaving with lower back spasms

8/31/14: After ranging up the middle and lunging to reel in a grounder, J.J. Hardy spins and fires to first to get the out

By Brittany Ghiroli and David Wilson
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MLB.com |

BALTIMORE -- Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy exited Monday's 6-4 loss to the Minnesota Twins prior to the eighth inning with lower back spasms and is considered day to day.

"He kind of wanted to continue, but I didn't want to take the chance of getting him worse," manager Buck Showalter said of Hardy, who missed five games with back spasms in April.

"I didn't like his last at-bat, I noticed he looked a little different and I had J.R. [John Russell] during the at-bat, I said, 'Check with him.' He did. Said it tightened up on him a little bit."

Hardy batted in the top of the seventh, reaching on an error by Minnesota third baseman Trevor Plouffe and eventually scoring on a game-tying three-run home run by catcher Nick Hundley. He said his back spasmed up several times on Monday, but Hardy seemed hopeful this time he wouldn't miss any time.

"Similar, but not even close to the degree that it was," Hardy said after Monday's game of how they compared to his back spasms in April. "I mean, what happens is it spasms up and it completely locks up on me and that's when I miss a week. This was just it would grab on me. Probably three, four times today but it didn't lock up. Probably a good thing I got out of there."

Hardy, who hit five of his nine homers in August, said he would hydrate a lot over the next 24 hours with the hope that he's back in Tuesday's starting lineup.

Asked whether the hot, sticky weather caused the spasms Hardy said, "I always sweat a lot. ... Hot game, I'll lose eight pounds and the next day I'm back to normal. I drink a ton of water and everything else. I don't know. Could be from the heat."